Elia's Life

When we got to Jackson Hole we decided that pictures were needed. That's when I realized that I had no pictures in front of the antler arch. Normally, this would be because I hate hunting and trophies, etc, but Elk shed their antler's every year. So no elk were harmed in the making of these photos. Mom did a pretty good job taking her share of pictures. On the way home we stopped in Driggs to take some pictures with the giant spud. That's another classic tourist thing I'd never done. Overall, it was a great weekend.

Mom came up to visit me in Rexburg this past weekend and Sunday we decided to go on a road trip. Relying on my infinate knowledge of Idaho geography we decided to drive out toward Sugar City and go until we had left farm land and entered the mountains. Apparently, this doesn't happen for quite some time. Looks like I should look at a map more often. After quite sometime of driving through farms we finally reached the Snake River Valley, or Teton River Valley, I'm not really sure, and I was able to take some glamour shots that are worthy of framing. Anyone interested in decorating with Idaho Senery? I know you all agree that this is Ansel Adam's quality (since he has one just like it.) Mom looking cute as always As we continued driving we kept seeing signs that is was "blank" amount of miles until Jackson. Well, being the smarties that we are, we assumed that it must be a different Jackson then the one we've all been to because there was no Hole on the end...

Starting with Mom's traditional pumpkin sugar cookies. She made a batch today so that I could take some back to Rexburg. And since most of you who she talked to on the phone whined that you wouldn't be getting any, I decided to show you what you're missing. I thought this picture looked like the factory pictures they show on Food Network Mom still doesn't trust me with frosting So here is a cookie for each and every one of you, including Makadie. But don't worry about us, we had ours too. and just for the record. I have not lost a tooth, nor do I have a black tooth. It's just a chocolate chip eye.

This was our last stop on the tour of churches, and was kind of an anti-climatic experience. A very impressive and beautiful building on the outside, it's devoid of the paintings and statues that made the other two so neat. They did have three huge stained glass windows and they were pretty. We were met here by their head pastor Pastor Mike, who talked to us for about 45 minutes. But since he didn't have any symbols or paintings to talk aobut we got a mini-sermon. Part of it was history and beliefs (if you can call them that) of the church, but things are so relaxed that it felt more like we were getting a proselyting discussion. "Join our church because..." sort of thing. It was still enjoyable, and Pastor Mike was an enjoyable speaker. This is one of the windows. It's depicting Christ's resurrection, when the angel told the apostles that he wasn't there.

No one met us at the Cathedral, but Brother Hansen is more than adequate as a tour guide. For those of you who haven't been here, it is an impressive sight. Just beautiful. The Cathedral is really quite a site, very impressive from the outside The front arch over the doors holds statues depicting Christ, the apostles and others. This is the alter area, which is chock-full of symbolism which I won't go into here. Call me if you're interested. The organ loft was impressive with all the pipes and a gorgeous stain glass window depicting the patron saint of music. This was my favorite window. It's depicting Christ when he appeared to Mary Magdelene after his resurrection. I have another reason to like daisies. They were painted on several of the stations of the Passion and they represent the innocence of Christ.

Mom and I went on a field trip Thursday with my religion class to Salt Lake City. Now, I've gone to Salt Lake for church-related events many times, but this is the first time that it's involved three churchs that I don't belong to. For my History of Western Religions class Brother Hansen took us to the Church of the Holy Trinity- Greek Orthodox, The Cathedral of the Madeline (otherwise known as Mary Magdeline)- Roman Catholic, and the Presbytrian church across the street. It was so fascinating to see them, especially since Brother Hansen knows what he's talking about. We both decided that if we were going to leave our church, we'd join the Greek Orthodox. Not only because their building was beautiful, but because Father Michael, who gave us a tour of the place, was so nice. Every Greek Orthodox building has a dome at the center of the building to signify the heavens. It's usually adorned with a representation of Christ looking down over the congregation. Th...

A bizarre twist of birthday fun came when I found out that we were celebrating at the Weber State Homecoming football game. This may seem like a normal event for some people, but for a family raised on the evils of football, it was odd. But I guess it was a sacrifice for a good reason. Dad plays in his alumni band once a year, probably the only time his poor saxaphone sees the light of day. Mom and Dad dressed in their Weber State Purple (actually Mom's was a Yellowstone shirt, but we didn't tell anyone) This was the "Old Fart Band" group photo Dad's up and ready to play The Weber State Wildcat directed a few songs during the tailgate party. Dad still puffs his cheeks while he plays, an extreme "no-no" in my personal opinion.

As most of you know, it was my birthday last week. I turned 24 and only have one more year before I am "middle-aged", a thing that I am truly dreading. I know as the baby of the family I'm not allowed to talk about feeling old, but I'm not talking, I'm blogging, and that's allowed. Anyway, I had a fun birthday that was made signifigantly better by getting Mom and Dad's gift- a new, really, really, really nice digital camera. For those of you in the camera world, it's a Pentax (the only brand worth using) K100. For those of you not in the camera world, just know that it's a good camera. Anyway, when I got back to Rexburg, my roommates had done some decorating. My first clue was the banner on our front door. Then when I went in there was confetti all over the front room floor and streamers hanging from the ceiling of my bedroom. Yes, my bedroom is messy, but only because I was rushed before I left town. These are my roommates Elise and Melissa e...

Guess what I did last night? Well, Becca invited me out riding, but this time insisted that I try an English saddle. I don't know if any you have ridden English, but the biggest difference between that saddle and a western saddle is no saddle horn. This is a scary thing. The saddle horn is what I grab on to when I feel like I'm going to fall of the horse. So the absence of one left me afraid that there was nothing to grab on to when I started to fall. Fear not, I didn't fall off. In fact, I finally learned to post effectively (that's the proper posture to have when you trot) which was exciting in and of itself. I even wore a helmet, so I looked like someone out of the movies.

This concert was even better than I remembered. I can't believe I thought about passing it up for a rodeo that I will probably go to every year from this point forward. Mom had a blast too. These guys really put on a steller performance and I would highly recommend anyone who has the chance, to go This one reminded me of "That Thing You Do" when Tom Hanks tells them to bow, and run, smiling, off stage. "John" was my favorite to watch. But he's always my favorite Beatle.

Becca, being the wonderful roommate that she is, took Mom and I out to ride Sunday night. It was a lot of fun. Mom hasn't been on a horse since I was eight (anyone remember Prudy) so at first I wasn't sure she would actually get on, but it didn't take much persuading. So, Mom rode Sally and I was on Jules.

I just got this email today from the Advising office. It's official, I'm going to graduate in December. Elia- I have reviewed your application for graduation. This email is designed to help you in your graduation planning and is not the final evaluation. Your application will be sent to the dean and graduation office for final review. According to our records, once you have completed the classes that you are currently enrolled in you will have met the requirements for a Bachelors of Science in Communication. Please let me know if I need to update my records or if I can answer any questions for you. Congratulations on all of your hard work. CHRIS CARSON Supervisor, Career & Academic Advising College of Business & Communication Smith 296A 208.496.1451 businessadv@byui.edu

This was the editorial I wrote for the Scroll this past week. I was very proud of it (after all the revisions) and actually won story of the week for it. This is cool because I spent 3 years on Scroll before I one an award. I take what I can get. Anyway, enjoy the article I Love the Smell of Movie Censorship in the Morning CleanFlicks is a Utah-based company that rents and sells edited copies of previously released movies. According to its Web site, the company removes “profanity, graphic violence, nudity and sexual content.” So, if you rent Steven Soderbergh’s award-winning film, Traffic, about the violent underworld of illegal drug-trafficking, you get a family friendly film about drugs. Editing movies for commercial use has been a hot legal topic in America since August 2002, when CleanFlicks of Colorado brought a lawsuit against 16 prominent Hollywood directors, saying that the company had a constitutional right to edit their movies. Since then, these directors, along with eight...

I had a fun day yesterday. My roommate Becca took Elisabeth and I out to the barn and we gave Jules and Sally bathes. I know that probably doesn't sound like the coolest thing in the world, but it really was a lot of fun. It's official, I'm a dork. My job was Jules, my new favorite horse (minus Bobby of course) This is Becca (the owner of the horses) and Willard, a friendly steer that lives at John's house. John is the owner of the farm that Becca boards her horses at.

After a semester "off", I'm back working for the BYU-Idaho Scroll. Their photo editor flipped his bike and broke his leg bad enough he had to go home. So I was called in to pinch hit. So I am now Photo Editor. For those of you who won't reseave the paper in the mail but wish to take an active interest in this part of my life, I have linked their website on my blog. Enjoy!

The Rexburg Temple is making a lot of progress. It's so fun to watch it go up. According to the senior couples that are working there now, the outside should be finished pretty soon.